Coin operated vending machines are well known in the art. Such machines provide needed goods and/or services in locations where it would not be economically feasible to otherwise provide traditionaly manned and stocked retail facilities. Such machines generally require the purchaser to insert money (paper bills or coins) into an input device and then provide the purchaser with a particular product or service as selected by the purchaser.
The money placed into the machine will usually be held in a locked area within the machine, and the machine's owner or representative will visit the machine from time to time and withdraw the collected money. Unfortunately, persons retained by the owner to perfrom this task are not universally honest, and some such persons occassionally divert part of the collected funds to themselves. This, of course, defrauds the owner of money rightfully earned on his behalf by the vending machine.
As a partial solution, some vending machines can be purchased or otherwise equipped with a counter to count vending transactions. The owner can then compare the accumulated count from the counter with receipts collected by his employees from time to time to ascertain the accuracy with which the employees are collecting and submitting such funds.
Unfortunately, such counters are usually easily temporarily disconnected by a dishonest individual who wishes to make the vending machine appear to be making fewer sales then in fact it is, to thereby allow him to divert the receipts from the hidden sales to himself. A need therefore exists for a means of determining whether such a counter has been disconnected, and for preferably responding in a way that will likely induce the individual to reconnect the counter and cease his dishonest activities.